STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If visitors to the beach at Gateway National Recreation Area in Great Kills are wondering what that foul smell just off the coast is, well a Friday call to police confirmed that it's not human, and it's certainly not alive.

Police were called when a regular visitor to the beach first smelled, then saw, what he feared to be human remains. He made the gruesome discovery -- a bug-infested, 4-foot long pile of bones -- just off the tip of the Great Kills beach early Friday afternoon.

The carcass was assessed by responding police to be a dead seal, which probably came to shore during high tide somewhere between Thursday night and Friday morning.